Upon learning Siddharth Goswami, artist moniker Acidic Base, grew up in Chicago, both his chosen name and his production style make perfect sense. As Chicago is the birthplace of house and has had a major influence over electro and acid house, it would really be impossible to come up in Chicago, even in the modern era, without a taste for electro and house music. As a new artist, Acidic Base’s work reflects that and more.
With most of his tracks in the electro and progressive house vein with some acid house thrown in for good measure, Acidic Base has deigned to bring back progressive but with a modern twist. He names some of his influences as Deadmau5, Eric Prydz and Daft Punk so while the melodies of tracks like “Purple Skies” and “Omnidirectional Hyperjet” are progressive, there’s a good dollop of electro as well, and overall these tracks are bog room vibes. The bass is echoey and resonant and thus great for dancefloors but other elements of the tracks travel in a very 80s electro way.
Of the five tracks Acidic Base has released so far, the most surprising one, especially given his style, is “Tachyon.” Very few house producers attempt to make drum and bass and, incredibly, Acidic Base has decided to do it right out of the gate. Even more incredibly, it’s not half bad. The track starts out with experimental elements in the intro which is already different than the 80s-influenced electro vibes of his other tracks.
There’s a little phantom drop in “Tachyon” after this experimental bit and then another intro with the actual synth melody. Said synth melody will cue listeners in to Acidic Base’s usual style as it’s very Tron-esque. A second phantom drop contains only the kick of the main beat and then finally snare fills out into the real drop. With the rolling D&B beat complete, he plays even more with synths, adding a quiet but nonetheless detectable bass synth and a harmonizing and extremely quick-moving second synth that turns the track into even more of a roller. If that weren’t enough, there are also halftime interludes in “Tachyon” which are effectively the breaks, where the bass synth takes over and leads back into the D&B beat.
It’s those incredible, well-developed synths which are going to characterize Acidic Base’s style in the future. With “Tachyon” and effectively all his tracks, he’s proved he can go anywhere with them and also that, save for beat and tempo, a good melody and clean composition can unify and hodgepodge of genres. It will be interesting to see where Acidic Base’s style goes from here, but he’s proven that it’s less about the genre and more about the artist.
Acidic Base’s first five tracks including “Tachyon,”Purple Skies” and “Omnidirectional Hyperjet” are out now and can all be streamed on Spotify.